Palisade, NE Air Force Cargo Plane Crash, Feb 1970

McCook, Neb. (AP) -- Five airmen were killed early Friday when an Air Force C133 cargo plane crashed and bounced in a ball of fire across about half a mile of rolling prairie northwest of here.
"It looked like a big ball of fire and then like fireworks going off," said Wayne Carse, a farmer, who witnessed the crash from about eight miles away.
Carse said the plane apparently exploded on impact.
Spokesmen at Offutt Air Force Base at Omaha withheld the names of the victims pending notification of next of kin.
An Air Force investigating team was dispatched to the scene to determine the cause of the crash.
The plane was stationed at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., and was en route to Harrisburg, Pa., Offutt said.

Waterloo Daily Courier Iowa 1970-02-06

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NAMES OF FIVE CREWMEN TOLD.

Travis Air Force Base, Calif. (UPI) -- Air Force authorities late Friday released the names of the five crew members killed early Friday in the crash of a C-133 military air transport plane near Palisade, Neb.
They were:
MAJ. HAROLD W. TABOR, 44, Vacaville, Calif., the plane commander.
T-Sgt. JAMES J. CLOUSE, 34, also from Vacaville.
M-Sgt. JOSEPH P. TIERNEY, 34, Fairfield, Calif.
1st LT. DUANE D. BURDETTE, 24, Gahanna, Ohio.
S-Sgt. IRA E. BOWERS, 38, Plymouth, N.Y.
A spokesman at Travis Air Force Base said the four-engine plane was bound for Harrisburg, Pa., carrying an Army helicopter. He said there were no radio reports that the plane was in trouble.
Authorities were investigating the crash at the scene.
CLOUSE in a native of Eddyville, Neb.

This Air Force cargo plane crashed in a pasture owned by my grandfather Earl Smith. I was a young boy when this happened and have no real memories of this crash, but I do remember an Air Force official giving me a replica of the C-133. We still find pieces of this tragic crash in our pastures.